Strong adoption and delivery, and higher implications for emerging digital government services have placed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in 7th position globally, according to a new Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study released today, titled “Personal and Proactive Digital Government: Accelerating GCC Journey”, indicating that digital government services have become an integral part of residents’ daily life in KSA.
BCG’s study shows that the level of satisfaction of digital government services in KSA is in the top rankings of global net experience scores, marked at 75% for 2022. Additionally, the digital service offering in Saudi Arabia has been met with a positive response, with the country’s residents placed highly in terms of frequency of access. In total, 68 percent of KSA respondents revealed they use digital government services at least once per week, compared with the global average of 49 percent.
“In 2022, COVID-related services have emerged as a benchmark for customer expectations, with their fast go-to-market times, frequent new feature updates, and advanced functionality. In fact, the most used digital government services in the GCC echo global patterns, with COVID-related services ranking #1 both regionally and globally,” said Rami Mourtada, Partner & Director, Digital Transformation, BCG. “Overall, GCC countries (including KSA) offer more sophisticated digital government services, which equates to more complex transactions – including registering or using a job search, accessing COVID-19 services, and processing visa, residency, or work permits – which all rank higher in terms of usage than the global averages, where simple transactions like accessing information are still more common.”
This level of integration is particularly significant in light of people’s high expectations. The vast majority of GCC residents expect their government to provide services
comparable to the best private companies in the world or global digital leaders. These include auto-filling forms with available customer data, tailoring or recommending additional offerings, and even automating complex tasks like travel bookings or loan approvals. When governments enter this traditionally private-sector territory, they must make a balanced trade-off between convenience on one hand and concerns about privacy on the other.
Coinciding with the launch of the report, BCG’s new tech build and design unit, BCG X will be front and center at the kingdoms upcoming global tech conference, LEAP, where co-author of the report and Global Leader of BCG’s Center for Digital Government, Miguel Carrasco will be hosting a keynote on ‘Generative Government’, drawing on some of the findings from the research. “Digital government is fundamental to Saudi Arabia’s long-term plan for world-class public sector services, in line with Vision 2030, and our new digital government survey highlights the kingdoms progress in this space. Further exploring the exciting potential of generative leadership and technology, and how governments can adopt these concepts to maximize their impact and outcomes, will be a key theme I plan to explore during the conference.” Said Miguel. The conference will also host a number of other BCG AI experts including Ronny Fehling, Partner and Director, Artificial Intelligence, and Leonid Zhukov, Director of BCG Global AI Institute, who will share their expertise on a number of topics including zero-based bias, generative AI and responsible AI.
The Digital Government Citizen Survey (DGCS) study, which includes citizens and residents – spanning 40 countries, 26 digital government services, and almost 30,000 individual responses – also highlighted other findings to understand the broader trends in digital government service delivery. Overall, GCC residents are satisfied with digital government services, appreciating benefits including understandable language, multiple platform accessibility, and easy access to information.
“Saudi Arabia is looking to become one of the top 15 nations in artificial intelligence by 2030. To this end, the Kingdom aims to train 20,000 data and AI experts, launch more than 300 active AI startups, and attract $20 billion in foreign investments by 2030,” said Lars Littig, Managing Director & Partner, BCG. “But clearly one approach will not fit all countries – each must find the level of personalization and proactive delivery that meets their residents’ needs and expectations, without trespassing on boundaries and trust.”
To this effect, BCG has identified four factors which must form the foundation of any government’s digital agenda:
• Trust and transparency – government must be transparent about how data will be collected, stored, accessed and used, and how breaches will be reported.
• Value exchange – customers are willing to consent for their data to be used for an exchange for good and services they value.
• No secondary use of the data – there should be a single purpose for each consent. Customers see secondary use or combining data as the creation of new data.
• Right to opt-out – customers value the right to withdraw consent or to opt-out of services. This process should be simple and complete.
“The COVID pandemic has driven strong adoption and delivery, and with higher implications for emerging digital government services. Although the KSA government has performed well across many indicators, it cannot be complacent in a fast-paced, high-expectation, post-pandemic world. It has an opportunity to be a leader in advancing personalized, proactive service delivery. Overall, Saudi Arabia should continue to track people’s evolving needs, while innovating and investing in technology that yields efficiency gains, community benefits, and most importantly, value for residents and residents,” concluded Semyon Schetinin, Managing Director & Partner, BCG.
Learn more about the regional findings here.
